Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Beware of the Hangover

Last year's postseason ended with the Cardinals knocking off the Rangers in a 7 game series to win the World Series.

Losing your league's biggest game, or biggest series in this case, can have many different effects on teams as they open the following year.

Some teams come out angry about the previous year and drop that emotion into the first game or series. Sometimes it means they play real well. Sometimes it means they play poorly.

Other teams come into the following season in a bit of a daze I'll call it. You've had a short offseason, you've been to the top, came up just short, and now have to do all the work just to get back to have that shot again. Teams that experience this usually fail miserably out of the gates.

The Miami Heat were the losers (love saying that) of the NBA Finals last year. They came out and absolutely blasted the Mavs in their first game.

The Pittsburgh Steelers who lost to the Packers in the prior Super Bowl, came out completely flat and got waxed by the Ravens 45-7.

Then there are these very Rangers. They came off their loss to the Giants in the World Series 2 years ago and swept the Red Sox.

One year before, the Phillies won 2 out of 3 (including Opening Day) against the Nats.

The last team to lose an Opening Day after losing the World Series is the Tampa Bay Rays. They did go on to win 2 of 3 over the Red Sox though.

The last team to lose a series coming off the World Series loss hangover is just one year earlier than that when the Rockies lost to the Cardinals.

Last team to get swept? That'd be the 1996 Cleveland Indians. They lost their first 2 games to the Yankees, then lost a 3rd to the Blue Jays before winning their first. They ended up doing alright winning 99 games that year.

Take that all in, and then make your predictions for the Sox Rangers series kicking off Friday. As if it didn't look bad enough already.